Continuing Education (CAPSTONE)

VETERANS COURT: TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A COLLABORATIVE JUSTICE MODEL IN SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY

Daniel Smee — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:45:14 PST

Veterans’ treatment courts represent an emerging trend across the country of collaborative justice designed to deal with criminal justice issues stemming from problems linked to military service. This approach places the veteran in VA (Veterans Affairs) treatment programs as a diversion from incarceration. There are few such courts in California (nine) largely in non-rural counties. This study investigated two rural counties, Tulare and Santa Barbara with Veterans courts to develop a model for such a court in San Luis Obispo County. Early recidivism data at the one-year point for Tulare County showed a zero percent rate of criminal behavior (12 participants); and no recidivism at three months for Santa Barbara County (16 veterans). Both rural counties have had to rely on VA services in outlying areas given the paucity of nearby VA Medical Centers and clinics. A key observation from both court systems was that Veterans Courts appear to be a “grassroots” phenomenon with counties initiating such courts based on personal commitment to veterans by key stakeholders. The San Luis Obispo County Veterans court core members are veterans led by a Deputy District Attorney who is an Iraq war veteran. Utilizing the two rural courts studied, SLO court will focus on drug crimes and domestic violence, with the exclusion of more serious felonies. The targeted date of implementation is July 1, 2012. The anticipated monetary benefit is reduced court and incarceration costs. A non-monetary benefit is the successful rehabilitation of the veteran.

A Push for States Rights Laws to Create a New Articles of Confederation System of Government in America: Eliminating the Middle-Class by Enacting Right to Work Laws and Voter I.D. Laws

Scott H. Jenkins — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:54:05 PDT

This case study seeks to discover if there is a relationship between underlying racism and a push for total governmental control by elected Tea Party officials and conservative Supreme Court Justices affecting the increase of sovereign states’ rights laws which are being manifested through right-to-work laws and voter identification laws. The question that will be asked is: whether resentful southern conservatives and Tea Party Republicans are “waging a war with the Federal Government”, unions and voters in an attempt to return the American Constitution to the Articles of Confederation by strengthening states’ rights laws while weakening federal powers (Pilkingtoni, 2010). There seems to be a causal connection between repressed white racism since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the election of an African American President and the emergence of Tea Party Republicans with a goal of strengthening states’ rights laws to create a new Articles of Confederation type Government in America in all fifty states.

This paper looks at the methods used by the Tea Party and by conservative Supreme Court Justices to analyze problems. Extreme right-wing Justices and elected officials continually use the ‘narrow view’ of analysis which works better to justify the states’ rights issues than looking at these same issues in the ‘broad view’. The GOP’s narrow view acts like ‘blinders’ on a horse which helps justify the defense of states’ rights without looking at the consequences of what would result from the elimination of the federal government.

WHY LIBRARIES ARE RELEVANT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Henry Rible — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:08:41 PDT

The libraries of the United States are integral and valued parts of the communities and institutions they serve. There are a number of kinds of libraries commonplace in the United States, including public, school, college and university, legal, and research libraries, each of which has a constituency they serve. The libraries with which people have the greatest familiarity and the two types they utilize on the most frequent basis are the public libraries, those which primarily serve municipalities, and school libraries, those which serve kindergarten through twelfth grade schools. It is upon these two that this paper places its greatest emphasis. Public and school libraries have been changed for the better by and their patrons benefited from the adoption of advanced means of access to library materials, such as computerized library catalogs, online databases for research, and computers available for public use. Libraries are now much more than buildings housing collections of books and periodicals, where children gather for “story hour” on Saturday mornings. Libraries and librarians are now challenged as well by both the actuality and the pace of technological advance in American society, most especially by the recent availability and capability of the digitization of data and documents. The digital revolution has caused many in society including policy makers, citizens-at- large, and librarians themselves to ask whether it is important that libraries be relevant to their communities. This paper will address the question of why relevant libraries are important to American society and how librarians are working to maintain and enhance their libraries' relevance.